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Murder Manor
On the 13th of Lowsun, four adventurers found themselves at the Prancing Unicorn in the small town of Hazelhaven. Valentine, the flamboyant dragonborn wizard; Mariel, the emotionally closed-off and mute half-elf rogue; Maiwen, the human druid, away from home for the first time; and Luvon, the elven barbarian. Valentine and Maiwen became aquainted when he helped her remove a twig from her hair that was stuck in place due to honey. The removal of it cost Maiwen a portion of her hair. While they were in the tavern, a nervous-looking woman entered and tried to talk to some of the other patrons inside the tavern. After being waved away by them and spat at by some, she approached Valentine, Maiwen, and Luvon, all sat at the bar. She introduced herself as Jun and asked if they were interested in paid work. She explained that she worked for a man named Ellamin Fletcher, who had something stolen from him. She described this item as an orange coloured crystal, dangerous in the wrong hands. Fletcher had already sent a couple of people out to find it, but they hadn't returned. After speaking with Jun, there was a sudden ruckus heard outside. A group of goblins were harassing the townspeople. Valentine downed his rose wine, smashed the glass on the ground, gave a warcry and charged in. He charged back out and into the tavern a few seconds later after taking a beating. When the fighting had finished, they noticed a young dwarf on the ground, slowly turning into petrified wood. Maiwen tried to heal him, but to no avail. Our heroes managed to track the goblins to Cragmaw Hideout, a small series of caves. While exploring the caves, they found Tristan tied up. While Maiwen freed her, they realised she seemed incapable of saying anything other than "hey" and her own name. Immediately after being freed, Tristan picked up a shortsword from a dead goblin and ran onwards, foregoing any attempt to be stealthy. Following her, the group found her fighting goblins in a cavern where another person was tied up. The group joined the fight, freeing Castell along the way, and were then joined by Bek, a dwarf they had seen earlier, the older brother of the petrified dwarf. When the fighting was over, Castell took something from one of the dead goblins and Bek held his sword to her throat and demanded she hand it over. He argued that the item was dangerous and needed to be contained before it killed anyone else. Castell refused to give it up, saying that it belonged to Ellamin Fletcher who knew how to keep it safe. She pointed out that in all the years he had the stone, no one was hurt, and within days of it being stolen, someone died. Bek then requested help from the group, however they chose to stand with Castell and Tristan. After seeing he was outnumbered, Bek backed down and left. Castell and Tristan led their rescuers to Fletcher's manor, where they met Jun again and the man himself. He explained that the object they were hired to find is a philosopher's stone. He then asked for the four of them to stay the night and protect it against invaders, offering to pay them for their services. Fletcher explained that he thought there might be a mole among his staff who initially stole the stone. He suspected his cook, Ornia Magmenor. Our heroes spent the remainder of the day patrolling the grounds and speaking to some of the residents. During this time, they discovered that Tristan didn't speak because she didn't know Common well yet. In the evening, they were brought dinner by Gaia, although Castell and Tristan did not eat. This was noticed by Valentine, who probed Castell about it until he became suspicious of her. Asking her to join him outside, they were followed by a stealthy Mariel. It was at this point that Valentine realised what Castell was: a homunculus. The night was uneventful, however when morning came, breakfast did not. Enraged, Valentine took Maiwen to the manor to find some food. Jun greeted them and explained that Gaia died during the night. Fletcher then invited the two of them into his basement to watch something he'd been working on. Upon entering the basement, Valentine and Maiwen saw an extensive alchemical setup, with a large machine along the far wall. The machine had a vat on either side of it; one was covered by a sheet, the other contained Gaia's body. Fletcher explained that Gaia was a homunculus, and that he was going to recycle her body for future use. Exploring the basement, Valentine and Maiwen found a leather case containing a very realistic prosthetic arm, which Fletcher explained was made of the same stuff homunculi were. He then began the process of recycling Gaia. As they watched, her body slowly turned to dust and was stored in various smaller vats attached to the larger one. When the process was finished, Fletcher completed his latest project, revealing that inside the other vat was a new homunculus. As they watched, he gave it life, and it came to consciousness. Meanwhile, an attack had been launched on the front gates of the estate. Among the attackers was Bek. Mariel, Luvon, Castell, and Tristan managed to fend them off, killing them all. Around the same time, everyone inside the basement was also attacked, this time by two magic users and Ornia. Ornia and her accomplises succeeded in destroying Fletcher's machine, however she was the only survivor. She was tied up and was searched, along with all her dead cohorts. Holy symbols of Zarus were found on several of the bodies. Mariel noted that it was strange they would worship Zarus, the god of humanity, when many of the attackers weren't human. Disatisfied with our heroes efforts, Fletcher paid less than half of what he had offered for their services. While leaving, Jun told them she was glad the machine was destroyed. Soon after this, the group remembered that Fletcher had promised them more than what he gave them and went back to confront him. He refused to pay them more and they grew angry. Valentine revealed that Fletcher's own staff resented him and when he continued to oppose them, they grew violent and knocked him out. Valentine then took it upon himself to try and convince Castell of her own agency while Maiwen looted the manor. Castell was unable to comprehend what Valentine was talking about and his efforts seemed to be for nought. As they were leaving, she mentioned Lucas, Fletcher's missing son who has disappeared eight years ago when he was seven. Inspired by the story of the missing boy, Maiwen vowed to find him and bring him back. The next morning, Luvon parted ways from the other three. Compelled to do what she could for Lucas, Maiwen decided to enroll in the local school to find out more about him. From her time at the school, she discovered that Lucas had been home-schooled and that Fletcher had an aquaintance named Louis Burton, another alchemist who sometimes visited him from the nearby city, Emberfell. Burton would often bring along his daughter who would play with Lucas. Meanwhile, Valentine and Mariel fought some zombies that had made their way from Emberfell to Hazelhaven. They then met Neriss Teken'viir, a drow who told them about the reward for killing undead in Emberfell. Valentine noticed that Neriss carried the leather case found inside Fletcher's basement.